Orders of the Day — Budget Proposals and Economic Situation

Part of the debate – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 19 April 1956.

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Photo of Mr Tom Iremonger Mr Tom Iremonger , Ilford North 12:00, 19 April 1956

These people have been suffering from inflation ever since 1939. At the time of the autumn Budget, which was itself an attempt to check inflation, we said to these people, "We know that this will cause a small rise in the cost of living. It may hurt a little, but it will be in your interest because it will cure inflation and then you will all be better off." That is all very well, but it is little comfort to say to the patient, "Never mind if the medicine kills you. If it had not killed you it will have done you good." That is not good enough, and I warn the Chancellor that these people are now very nearly at their last gasp. It is not enough for the Chancellor to continue to say: I tell you naught for your comfort,Yea, naught for your desire,Save that the sky grows darker yetAnd the sea rises higher. It has come to the time when they cannot endure much longer and I earnestly beseech the Chancellor to recognise that every penny he loses for them is lost to them forever. They have no redress. They rely entirely upon him and the success of his policy. Because I believe his Budget is rightly and imaginatively conceived as a further strengthening of the defence against inflation, I give my welcome and encouragement to my right hon. Friend in his imaginatively conceived proposals.